ALL VALID

Skateboarding is an art, not a sport. New York is a city, not a mall.

Every day, skateboards whizzing past storefronts make the soundtrack to Orchard Street extra unique. Along this "Highway of Skate," skaters are constantly scouting places to bring their boards, but galleries are not typically among them.

As development in downtown New York changes the accessibility of public spaces, from benching the Chinatown Banks to skate-proofing the proposed Broome Street Park,  skaters adapt to navigating new terrain and discovering the next best spots, whether it be a bent pole at a demolition site or a white wall at a gallery.

Chinatown Soup challenges the idea that skateboarding is offensive. Instead, we ask how skaters defy assumptions of rights and ownership to the city’s built and social infrastructure. A skateable exhibit invites us to reconsider New York skate culture through artwork, video, and sculptural installations by artists who skate and skaters who make art.

To us, it’s all valid.  

Curated by Leila Samii and Sean Gallagher